After week
nine the playoff teams were already decided, but the top spot in most divisions
was still up for grabs. The top spot is particularly valuable since it grants
teams advantages in the postseason, such as draw odds in the quarterfinals and
choice of color in the semifinals.

The San
Francisco Mechanics had already clinched first in the Pacific division, but
continued their momentum with a smooth 3-1 win over the Seattle Sluggers.

The
Manhattan Applesauce were leading by a half-point in the Atlantic, and beat New
Jersey to secure first place as well.

The
critical match-ups of week ten included the Dallas Destiny vs. Miami Sharks and
the New England Nor'easters vs. Connecticut Dreadnoughts.

Both Dallas
and New England were leading their divisions by a half-point, and while the
Nor'easters were able to draw their match and keep first place, Dallas was
upset by Miami to fall to second in the South.

Here are
the final standings after ten weeks of regular season play, with teams
advancing to the playoffs in bold:Western
Conference

This year's
MVP race was won by FM Jeffrey Xiong of the Dallas Destiny, who basically led
from start to finish. Jeffrey went 8-0, playing mostly from the third board,
with wins over GM Gonzalez, GM Anka, and GM Kaufman, as well as this humbled
CLO writer. Here is Jeffrey's win against GM Renier Gonzalez of the Miami
Sharks, played just last week:

Taking
second place in the MVP race was GM Zviad Izoria of the Manhattan Applesauce,
who went undefeated for the year with wins against other top players, such as
GM Akobian, GM Hess, GM Gelashvili, and GM Stripunsky. Here is Izoria's fine
technical win over GM Alex Stripunsky of the New Jersey Knockouts:

Third place
went to NM Ryan Goldenberg, also from Manhattan, who dominated the fourth board
all year and even won last week's Game of the Week contest (analyzed below).

Highlights
- here are the two
winners of the Game of the Week contest from Weeks 9 and 10:
Week 9
Giorgi Margvelashvili (DAL) - Ben
Finegold (STL) 1/2-1/2 (game
of the week!)

The following encounter was superb,
with both players playing critical moves on their way to the only drawn
encounter to win GOTW this season.

White had just played Bxe7,
expecting Rxe7 as an automatic reply, but instead came 17...Nxh2! A
highly unusual move -- which falls within the mysterious realm of zwischenzugs
(in-between moves). Black counterattacks the rook and White has no time to save
both pieces. 18.0-0-0 Probably best. The critical point comes after 18.Bh4
Nxf1 19.Kxf1, and with two pieces for the rook White is doing great, except for
19...Nb6!-+ winning a piece.

Since the knight is so far away from
home, a move like 18.Rh1 would usually punish Black's eccentricity, but here
18...Nf3+ saves the day, since 19.Ke2 runs into 19...Nxd4+, winning the queen.)
18...Nxf1 19.Ba3

Although White is down an exchange,
they have great compensation -- the minor pieces have use of the d6-square
while Black's pieces are fairly inactive. Black's position is definitely to be
preferred, but it's hard to make use of the extra material. 19...Nb6 A
clever way to defend the loose knight. 20.Nd6 Nd5! Black understands
that White's knight on d6 is worth as much as either of his rooks, so he
welcomes Nxe8 and instead improves his pieces. 21.Nce4!

Thanks but no thanks! White prefers
to keep his knight on d6. (21.Nxe8 Rxe8 is much better for Black, who is up a
healthy extra pawn and will eventually get his knight back into the game via
h2-g4.) 21...Qe2! Leaving the rook hanging once again -- piece activity
is key. Black also leaves the b-pawn hanging, hoping to open up files against
White's king. 22.Qxb7! Accepting the challenge, trusting that his knight
on d6 will keep his king safe by controlling the c8-square. 22...Rf8 23.Qxc6
a5 24.Qc4 Rfc8!

Always look for tactics to justify
positional ideas! In this case Finegold simply wanted to place his rook on the
open c-file, so he made it happen! 25.Bc5 Qxc4+ 26.Nxc4 Nh2 27.Kd2 Ng4 28.f3
Nh6 29.g4

A very unbalanced endgame -- Black
is up a bit of material but White has great squares for all of their pieces --
the game reached its logical conclusion and the players repeated moves later
on. ½-½
Week 10

NM Ryan Goldenberg has been one of
the best players in the league this year, scoring 8.5/10 on the fourth board.
This week he finally earned game of the week honors, due to the following
sacrificial attack:

20...Ng3+! 21.hxg3 hxg3+ 22.Kg1 Now the h-file is open, and the
g3-pawn is a huge attacking asset, but Black must find a new avenue to attack
since Nh3 is always a defensive possibility. 22...Bxe4!

Taking advantage of White's knight
being overloaded, since it must stay on h3 to defend the h-file. 23.Nh3 (23.Nxe4
runs into the common mating pattern: 23...Rh1+ 24.Kxh1 Rh8+! Why not? 25.Kg1
Rh1+ 26.Kxh1 Qh4+ 27.Kg1 Qh2#) 23...Rxh3!? Not a bad idea, sacrificing a
full rook for the mating prospects along the h-file, but 23...Bxe3+! was much
stronger, with idea 24.Qxe3 Qf5! A hard move to find, but White is forced to
give back their extra piece since any move like 25.Nb3 loses to 25...Bxg2! or even
25...Rxh3 ) 24.gxh3 Qh4 25.Bxa7 Qxh3!

26.Rf3 Forced! 26...Rxa7 27.Nb3 The
queen can never leave the 2nd rank on account of Qh2+, followed by g2+ and g1=Q
27...Rc7 28.Nd4 Rc4! White still has their hands full on the kingside,
and can't get out of harm's way just yet. 29.Rd1 Bxf3 30.Nxf3 Rxf4

Black has won back some material,
and now has three pawns for the knight, but White's a-pawn remains on the board
as an important factor. If Black's attack stalls on the kingside, White will
simply promote and win. 31.a5 Qh5?! 32.Nd4 A reasonable move, but not
the best...32.Kg2! was strong, since 32...Qxa5 can be met with 33.Qd2 and Black
is hard-pressed to find a good move here. 32...Qd5?

Giving White a chance to practically
win the game on the spot! (32...Qc5 would keep the position extremely unclear) 33.c3??
As is often the case, when one side has an opportunity for a game-winning
move they instead make a game-losing blunder! Winning was 33.Qb5! a tough move
to spot, but very strong, since basically all endgames are winning for White,
so Black has to try 33...Qe4 (33...Rxd4 loses elementarily to 34.Qxd5
Rxd5 35.Rxd5 exd5 36.a6+- and the pawn promotes) and now 34.Qd3! Qd5
White has won a crucial tempo here, and can simply play 35.a6 and Black has no
way to seriously attack White's king. If 35...Rf2 then the simplest way
to victory is to simplify with 36.Nf5+! (36.Qxg3 is also not bad) 36...Qxf5
37.Qxf5 Rxf5 38.Ra1+- and Black will have to give their rook for the a-pawn. 33...Rf2!
Simply winning the queen. 34.Qxf2 gxf2+ 35.Kxf2

And NM Goldenberg was able to win
from here without too much difficulty. 0-1

Find games, results, standings, line-ups, blogs, and more on www.uschessleague.com. Also make sure to check out www.chess.com/tv Tuesday and Wednesday nights for live coverage of every USCL match! The coverage is open to all members (membership is free), and often features league commissioner IM Greg Shahade, and other special guests. You can also follow @USChessLeague & @hellokostya on Twitter.